|||
Hello and thank you for reading! At this point in our overall series, we have completed our perusal of how history shows the fall of Nebuchadnezzar’s ancient Babylonian empire, the rise and fall of the Medo-Persian empire, the rise and fall of the ancient Greek empire, the rise and fall of the pagan Roman empire, and the rise and reign of the papal Roman empire.
That last one could also be termed, Religious Mystery Babylon. We are now approaching The Rise of Financial Mystery Babylon. This is going to be somewhat of a look back at a few of the ideas presented in the previous blogs. But those look-backs will be few because now, for those of you who have been reading the blogs all along, I do not want to bore you with a lot of repetition.
Therefore, I will also be presenting some new material on some of the topics of the previous 13 lectures (broken down into bite size blogs). Because as I initially prepared the lectures, I almost always found myself with a plethora of material that there simply was not time to delve into in any detail. So, this is lecture number 14 in this series, and it is entitled: Thresh and Consecrate, Ye Daughters of Zion.
For the benefit of the newbies, we have been doing a series of Bible study lectures on what I believe is one of the most important themes in the Bible. The title of the series is Mystery Babylon and the Stone Kingdom.
Upon hearing that title a novice might be thinking, “Well, James, isn’t salvation one of the most important themes in the Bible and that title doesn’t sound like it deals with salvation at all?”
Well, first, we agree salvation is one of the primary and most important themes of the Bible. You might have noticed we posed that question as coming from a novice, because, as most of my regular listeners understand, this series is in fact totally about salvation.
But not about personal salvation so much, which obviously is especially important; but you can hear that preached and taught in hundreds of thousands of churches in America almost every Sunday.
What I am referring to is national salvation. And ultimately the salvation of the world! And when I say, “the salvation of the world,” I mean just that. I often use the term “universal reconciliation” or “universal salvation,” by which I mean that God will ultimately save all mankind. (This excludes “the devil.”)
My colleagues, Steve and Ron, and others may use other terms, but we agree that eventually God is going to save everyone. Now you must admit that such a topic is seldom heard of, let alone taught in those same hundreds of thousands of churches.
This present series, however, is not about that subject per se.
So again, for newbies and novices, what do we mean by national salvation? And why is it important to us today? It is extremely important to us at this point in history. Much more on that later in the series.
For now, how about if we obtain some understanding of what the Bible means by that term by simply quoting several passages which deal with this concept. Turn to 1 Samuel 19. While you are doing so, I will quote from Exodus, chapter 14.
You all are familiar with how the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea. How the waters were held back by God as they escaped Egypt. Then how Pharaoh’s armies tried to pursue them through the Red Sea and were wiped out as the walls of waters came crashing back upon them. And so, it says in…
Exodus 14:30 Thus the LORD [lit., Yahweh] saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.
Clearly, this is not referring to some kind of “go to heaven when you die” scenario. Rather, this is an instance where God saved a nation—His chosen people, Israel—from death and destruction as a people, as a nation. Hence, it was national salvation. Next, in 1 Samuel 19, Jonathan is pleading with his father, King Saul, that he would not murder David. Jonathan says:
1 Samuel 19:5 For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
Again, it refers to the preservation of the nation as a nation. Nothing there about going to heaven when you die. Now you can write down these references and check me out later if you wish, but how about …
Isaiah 45:17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
And then we find this in…
Isaiah 46:13 I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.
If I were to ask the average Christian today who is your savior, they would almost unanimously answer that Jesus Christ is our savior. And of course, that is true but in the Old Testament the Bible speaks of many saviors of Israel.
For example…
2 Kings 13:5 (And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime.
There, once again, we see an example of national salvation: the people or the nation of Israel being saved from their enemies. It does not tell us in this passage who this savior was or how he delivered Israel from the Syrians, but obviously this was a savior in the sense of many saviors we find in the Old Testament.
To gain a fuller understanding, however, of why and how the bad guys gained supremacy over the Israelites in the first place, it would behoove us to read the previous four verses.
2 Kings 13:1 In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years.
Before I proceed, I just want you to notice that the people of Judah and the people of Israel are at this point in history two separate nations.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.
3 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all their days.
4 And Jehoahaz besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
Well, that puts a bit of a different twist on the picture, doesn’t it? According to this passage, the reason Israel was in bondage to another people was because God was punishing them for their sins. It does not merely say that God “allowed” the bad guys to subdue Israel.
It clearly states that God actively delivered Israel into the hands of the Syrians. And this went on for many years until King Johoahaz had a change of mind, which we today would term repentance.
It was only then, when the king sought the favor of Yahweh, that the God of Israel sent a savior and delivered Israel from their national bondage. It was a national salvation.
We will not expound any further examples on that—except one more in a few minutes—but you can read in the history of Israel all throughout the Old Testament and find this same pattern of national sin being followed by the nation being put into bondage or servitude to another nation or empire.
And that enslavement was an action of God Himself to hand them over to their enemies to cause Israel to turn back to Him. That, in short, is the story of the history of Israel in the Old Testament.
Ah, but when we get to the New Testament, salvation is all about going to heaven when we die, right? …Or so we are led to believe by most Christian ministers and theologians. But let us look at the gospel of Luke, chapter 1.
This is where Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoke this prophecy about Jesus, who was then in the womb of Mary. And as we can all easily see, the context shows that the people spoken of here are the people of Israel.
Luke 1:68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
Now note the kind of salvation being prophesied here:
71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
Hmmm, here we are in the New Testament and so far, this appears to be another case of national salvation, doesn’t it? Nothing here about personal salvation, or going to heaven when you die, is there? Let us continue…
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
Just based on this pair of verses, do you think it might be important to understand more about the covenants that God made with Abraham, and with his son, Isaac, and with his grandson, Jacob, and with David and others? I thought that would be quite important to learn about so that is why I put together a series of studies called The Covenants of the Bible.
It ended up being 48 lectures in all—and I am pretty sure we were just scratching the surface—but compared to what else is out there, I think any serious student of God’s Word would find those studies not only helpful but with some substance as well.
For your convenience, we have separated the series into six albums of eight lectures each. Check our order forms on our website to see how to obtain the series. I can assure you that though we are focusing on national salvation for the moment, that the covenants encompass much, much more, but Zacharias here is led to focus on this national salvation aspect, and I will back up to verse 72:
72 ……. and to remember his holy covenant;
73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
74 That he would grant unto us, that we [that would be the Israelites] being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
So, we can now accurately state that one of the reasons Jesus came was to bring national salvation to Israel.
[Panting breathlessly and panicky…] “But, but, but what about going to heaven, James?! What about going to heaven???” I can just hear the babes in Christ, can’t you? Churchianity has so programmed the flock that they know almost nothing of salvation except going to heaven when they die. Grow up, will you?
Alas, I am pretending to be exasperated. I am not really exasperated with them, because I realize they cannot grow beyond the elementary things of Scripture. At least not at this time. But the time will come—and I think is even now beginning to arrive in this momentous year of 2020!
Moreover, I am not meaning to puff myself up or puff up my listeners and readers, as though we were somehow better or more righteous than others simply because we understand some things which we recognize as spiritual meat.
Because at the same time, we recognize that it is all the Father’s doing. He in His sovereign Plan chose to give us the understanding, and in this context I often remind myself that He chooses the nobodies—and I know we all understand that we should beware lest we think we are something really special, when we, in and of and by ourselves, are nothing. As Paul says…
1 Corinthians 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
And so, we realize that God chooses each person to grow at a certain rate and to move on in their understanding according to His timing. And for most of our brothers and sisters in churchianity, that time is not yet.
But soon, I do believe, they will hunger for the meat of the Word as never before. For we are fast approaching the culmination of that about which the prophets spoke. It is all about and has always been about… timing; not ours, but the Father’s timetable.
Please join us in the next blog on as we continue this topic…
